Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Zach Wheeler's three nasty pitches

In Zach Wheeler's Mets Debut, he used four different pitches...but three of them seem to be his primary pitches.. He used his fastball 70% of the time, while using his slider 17%, and curve 12%... His changeup was only used 2%.

Carson Cistulli of Fangraphs outlines his three primary nasty pitches:

Wheeler’s fastball was his most effective pitch against Atlanta. Of the 14 swinging strikes generated by Wheeler on Tuesday, 12 of those were by way of the fastball. Here’s one of them, to Brian McCann for a strikeout in the second inning.

Wheeler’s other two swinging strikes were recorded by way of the slider. Here’s one of those — in this case, one with less than horizontal movement than one might expect — to Dan Uggla for a strikeout in the sixth inning.

Wheeler’s curveball wasn’t particularly helpful for him on Tuesday — or, at least not in terms of results. He threw just four of his 12 curves for strikes — three called and one fly ball for an out. Here’s one of those called strikes, from the same Dan Uggla at-bat as above